Re: Satellite Times Gone

On Fri, 4 Sep 1998 ka8qcu@juno.com wrote:
> Hi All. I just got my September issue of Satellite Times and was saddened
> to see that it is the last issue. Due to high costs and low subscription
> numbers it has been decided to stop the magazine.
> It was one of the few magazines that I read cover to cover. Being fairly
> new to satellites, I learned a lot from the articles each month. Not only
> amateur radio related, but radio astronomy and space in general.
> I'd like to say thanks to Larry Van Horn, Phil Chien,Jeff Lichtman, John
> Magliacane and the other folks for many enjoyable hours. And thanks to
> Bob Grove for giving it a try.
I agree with this one. "Satellite Times" was one of the Good Ones, and
I just wish someone had taken Grove up on the chance to take the magazine
in. With the stable of writers they had, and someone to boost them though
some of the early part of the growth curve, I think they'd have gotten
to be a major voice in the satellite field.
> I was wondering if anyone has found any other magazines that may help
> fill the void. Of course I get the AMSAT Journal, and read the occasional
> articles in the other amateur radio magazines. I used to buy a magazine
> called Spaceflight ( I think it was put out by the British Interplanetary
> Society) but have not seen it in any book stores for a couple of years.
> Is there anything written for radio astronomy? I haven't seen much, or
> am looking in the wrong places. Any suggestions you can give will be
> appreciated. 73 de Doug KA8QCU
> email ka8qcu@juno.com
The problem with spaceflight (and one of the reasons that "Satellite
Times" had problems building up as a subscription-only magazine) and
satellites is that, while there are a lot of folks who are generally
interested in the field, there aren't that many people who want to set
down and read a whole magazine about it, let alone subscribe to a
magazine on the subject. There are other magazines that cover space,
but they tend to be a bit more towards the "trade publication" venue,
rather than as general interest type publications. As such, they also
tend to command a premium in price. Two good ones are "Space News" and
"Avaition Week & Space Technology". Both are weekly publications, and
both have excellent sources ("AvWeek" tends to be known as "AvLeak"
for it's getting the word out before a lot of other sources). They are
also expensive, running $99 and $89 per year respectively. "Space News"
is all space, while "AvWeek" covers aviation and space matters, which
might be a deciding factor. No technical, how-to articles, just news
and commentary. Some of the astronmy magazines cover space missions,
and do the odd bit of how-to, but the coverage is spottie at best.
Beyond that, there are magazines put out by some US-based groups like
(or that wish they were like) the British Interplanetary Society, but
their coverage tends to be more than a bit slanted by what interests
them and their members, so they might not be of interest.
There is also "OSCAR Reports", which someone else might know far more of
than me. Mostly AMSAT-type stuff, from what I've seen, so if you're
interested in getting beyond the material that gets put into things
like the "AMSAT Journal", this might not be for you.
Not a lot of postitives, I fear, but general-interest space pubs just
aren't that common.
Later,
Andy
WD9IYT
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